PC Magazine offers a six-way shootout between Red Hat, SuSE,
Debian (Potato), Caldera, Mandrake, and Turbo Linux. Red Hat takes
top honors in the final reckoning (which can be viewed by
downloading a PDF on the last page of the report.)
"Widespread industry acceptance and ease of use make
Red Hat's distro a solid choice for general use, but don't rule out
other distributions until you've studied them and know which excel
at specific tasks.
Trying to choose the best Linux made us hearken back to our
notebook PC roundups of the early nineties. We frequently tested
computers sold by different companies that were manufactured by a
single OEM and differed only in packaging and support. That's
pretty much how it is with Linux. The companies and organizations
producing Linux distributions have access to the same tools. So it
generally comes down to who puts together the right bundle with the
best support.
We debated for hours to reach the ratings and conclusions for
this story. In the end we all agreed that Red Hat deserved the
Editors' Choice. Many factors tipped the scales in its favor, but
the most important were its quality, ease of use, and widespread
industry acceptance. Though other distributions surpass Red Hat in
specific tasks, none are as well rounded. Red Hat's general
longevity in the Linux arena also means that hardware and software
systems throughout the industry have been optimized for its
use.
Close behind is SuSE, the European Linux favorite. It offers
many of the same advantages as Red Hat, and we loved its one DVD
installation option. Caldera is making strides to become the Linux
of the enterprise; its OpenLinux Server 3.1 is especially suited to
e-commerce applications."
